What is an Evaluation?
The Evaluation program is the third of the three main parts to the meeting. All prepared speakers, as noted above, should have their speaking manuals with them and should have passed them on to the evaluators beforehand. During the speech, and after, each person’s evaluator should make written notes and furthermore, plan what to say during the two to three minute oral evaluation. Evaluation is tough to do well because it requires an evaluator to do more than say “here’s what you did wrong.” A good evaluator will say “here’s what you did well, and here’s why doing that was good, and here are some things you might want to work on for your next speech, and here’s how you might work on them.” It’s important to remember that the evaluator is just one point of view, although one that has focused in on your speech closely. Other members of the audience can and should give you written or spoken comments on aspects of your speech they feel important.
Each time you give a prepared speech, you receive a 2 to 3 minute oral evaluation from another member. A good evaluator will say “here’s what you did well, here’s why doing that was good, here are some things you might want to work on for your next speech, and here’s how you might work on them.” Not only does the speaker receive very useful feedback, being an evaluator gives you the opportunity to improve your own ability to practice critical judgment and to give constructive feedback along with positive reinforcement, encouragement, and motivation for others.
An evaluation is the process used to determine whether your child has a disability. This process incudes a review of any relevant data, and the individual administration of any tests, assessments and observations of your child. For an initial evaluation, at least two child study team members and other specialists* as required or as determined necessary must participate. (When the suspected disability is a language disorder, the speech-language specialist may participate as one of the two required child study team members.) * Specialists include but are not limited to speech-language specialists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and physicians.
